CAMCORDER JUDO GRADING

CAMCORDER JUDO GRADING

Classical Martial Arts Society

I started Judo when I was just 5 years old in 1955 and in all that time I was taught that Judo was a Martial Way which included a sporting element, SHIAI. For most of my life it has been Shiai that has dominated my Judo career yet I was brought up in a generation where you could not grade without understanding the Martial Way, which in my younger days meant learning and performing Judo theory and Kata it would be many years before I understood the Philosophy of Judo or should I say the Philosophy of Jigaro Kano. So now because of injures my competition days are finished and I look back on the past sometimes with misty eyes wishing I was what I was then, another time it is with a smile realising having to learn all those terrible Kata’s, which I would argue fervently were a waste of time and having to be taught and examined by people who could not beat me, were part of my road to understanding Jigaro Kano’s Judo. My parents both sadly no longer with us must look down on me and think it has taken him 53 years to learn.

Does that mean I have gone soft on the contrary I still feel that young people should experience Shiai, yet I feel there are people in the World of Judo who are being neglected? Many years ago I started Camcorder gradings for Jiu Jitsu and CombatSombo which have been very successful, 80% of enquires I get for Camcorder Gradings never go past the first enquire. Most believe that if they pay enough I will give them some grade, when they realise they have to work for their grade and a pass an exam with the outcome not a forgone conclusion they soon give up the idea. On a lot of occasions I have been asked to do Camcorder Gradings for Judo and I have resisted this but the majority of these enquire were not from people who did not want to go to their local Judo Club. They were from people who 1) lived literally hundreds of miles from the nearest Judo Club, where 3 or 4 men or women who have got together to practise Judo learning from books and magazines or Judoka who have learnt Judo practised but never graded or maybe got to 1st Kyu or 1st Dan after 20 years want to go further but their organisation would not let them jump grades, something IBFUK doe not allow. I feel I want help these people.

The Classical Martial Arts Society will be able to help them by offering grading in all the Classical Martial Arts, CMAS will not be an association it will be purely an examination board and will be for the assessment of an Individual ability to perform theoretical tasks in a Traditional manner. It will not be an award that tests their ability to teach others, this can be achieved by joining an Organisation. CMAS will present the candidate with a Syllabus which they will then have perform via DVD, the production of the DVD doe not have to be professional but it does need to be of a high amateur standard in content and production. All candidates will be vetted, as it not my intention to by pass the various Martial Arts Organisations, for example if some one applies to be graded to 1st Dan Judo and there are clubs in a 40 mile radius they will be expected to support their local club. My own expertise is in Judo, CombatSombo, Sambo and Jiu Jitsu, if a candidate wants to be examined in an Art I am not familiar with I will appoint an examiner who is, with over 50 years in the Martial arts this will not be hard to do.

Any one interested in CMAS contact Martin Clarke 8th Dan, sombogb@blueyonder.co.uk go to www.sittingbourne.org .org and check my various web sites